Identifying and Advocating Best Practices in the Criminal Justice System. A Texas-Centric Examination of Current Conditions, Reform Initiatives, and Emerging Issues with a Special Emphasis on Capital Punishment.

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

More Information Sought in Ohio Lethal Injection Challenge

Attorneys for two accused killers challenging the state’s lethal injection protocols don’t take no for an answer.

Despite Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James
Burge’s refusal to allow them to question the three medically trained
members of the state’s execution team, the attorneys are again asking
Burge to grant their request to interview them.

The request came Tuesday in the written closing
arguments submitted by attorneys for Ruben Rivera and Ronald McCloud,
who could face a death sentence if convicted in two separate Lorain murders.

County Prosecutor Dennis Will said his office continues to oppose the request, which
centers on the qualifications of the medically trained members of the
execution team.

And:

Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Ohio chapter, wrote that interviews with those execution team members would
help Burge learn what their experience level and qualifications are and
whether they are “appropriate members” of the team. Gamso also argues that Burge should declare that the state’s current lethal injection process doesn’t meet an

Ohio law requiring that executions be quick and painless. He also said it is unconstitutional.

He points to convicted killer Joe Clark and
Christopher Newton, whose executions took far longer than most, as
proof that there are still problems with how the lethal three-drug
cocktail is administered.

Clark’s 2006 execution took 88 minutes, and at one
point, he told prison officials that the drugs weren’t working, Gamso
wrote, adding that it took 19 tries to get the IVs properly connected
to Clark to allow the drugs to enter his system.

Newton’s 2007 execution, Gamso wrote, took nearly two hours, and when the drugs
finally started flowing, it took about 16 minutes for them to kill him.

“It is clear that on at least two occasions, things did go wrong,” Gamso wrote.

Of the three members of the execution team, two of those people are
EMTs and the third has certification with the American Society if
Clinical Pathologists, Gamso wrote in the brief yesterday.

Two
expert witnesses, both anesthesiologists, one for the state and one on
behalf of McCloud and Rivera testified in a hearing in April. Dr. Mark
Heath, on behalf of McCloud and Rivera, testified that Ohio's lethal
injection protocol is not appropriate for dogs or cats, let alone
humans. Dr. Mark Dershwitz, an expert witness for the state testified
that Ohio's execution procedure is humane and includes enough
anesthetic to knock out an average inmate for two hours.

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The StandDown Texas Project

The StandDown Texas Project was organized in 2000 to advocate a moratorium on executions and a state-sponsored review of Texas' application of the death penalty.
To stand down is to go off duty temporarily, especially to review safety procedures.

Steve Hall

Project Director Steve Hall was chief of staff to the Attorney General of Texas from 1983-1991; he was an administrator of the Texas Resource Center from 1993-1995. He has worked for the U.S. Congress and several Texas legislators. Hall is a former journalist.